So, the egg trial didn't go horribly. It just didn't go great. I had 3 eggs during the day: 2 scrambled in the morning (unaccompanied) and 1 in my vegetable soup for lunch. That afternoon I had gas. Not the unbearable stuff which was probably the first step in doing this elimination diet, but it was gas...and gas can add up. Eggs in Waiting day 1 was also gassy, but nothing to lay me flat for the day. The end decision with eggs was to keep them out and try re-introducing them later in the process...which is the pits because I re-added them first since so much of the diet here revolves around them. That left me back at home plate. What did almost lay me flat was a dizzy spell I had which I'm attributing to dehydration...and perhaps a lack of calories. While my favorite thing about this diet is that it doesn't restrict calories, it does restrict how you can get those calories...and, quite frankly, you get sick of eating the same thing over and over (as noted by giving the dog my rice a week or two ago).
My friend Lyndsey thinks a lot of my issue has been that I also omitted fruit. I will admit that that would give the diet more variety, and to be really honest with you all, I added bananas back in on about day 20 (of the first 25) because someone gifted me one and as I didn't have anyone to regift it to (nor will the dog eat it), I ate it myself. Even if my doctor's doctor-friend thinks sugar of all types is causing my issues, I don't think that a single banana every once in a while is going to do me harm. Admittedly, yesterday I was traveling and the only thing on the breakfast menu at the restaurant where we stopped that was going to work out for me was the fruit salad; so that's what I got minus the pineapple (which I know bothers my throat). So, I ate banana, papaya (which I don't typically like but thought was halfway okay this time), watermelon, and orange for breakfast. (I think they substituted more papaya for the pineapple, actually, as the plate didn't look like it had a blank space.) Everything else was eggs (see above if you missed why this is a no-no still) with some sort of salsa (tomato, which I still haven't given a test run on)...or pancakes (which is all sorts of no-no for the moment).
And on Monday, I tried dairy. In reality, this was to give my stomach a chance to eat some probiotic yogurt. (Admittedly, that has some sugar in it. I would have gotten plain yogurt and added a banana, but they don't sell that in probiotic form...and that was kind of the point.) So, since I was going to be doing dairy anyway, I took some advantage of the situation. In the morning I had a mug of warm milk with some "elimination crackers." (Anything that follows my requirements of the first 25 days is named "elimination.") It was a large-ish serving; so, in my mind, it wasn't allowed to be consumed alone. Besides, I usually have (had?) my morning milk with bread. For morning snack--it is common to have 5 "meals" per day here--I had a tiny cheese ball. Lunch was a small carton of apple yogurt, and afternoon snack was a small carton of peach yogurt. Dinner was cheesy rice made with the local cheese and that rice which we know I'm not fond of. Cheese makes everything better. I also had some "elimination bread"...which didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. I would have loved to have ice cream as well, but finding a small enough serving of it that I would have been content using it to test with wouldn't have been possible (due to my self-imposed rule of only allowing small portions to be standalone). And, as Lyndsey told me, since I haven't yet tested sugar, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea anyway. (Lyndsey is a health professional and has done this process herself in the US...before anyone wonders why anyone should trust her on this.)
Which is why, after seeing no bad effects--gas, pain, or anything--from the dairy, I'm kind of planning to add sugar back into my diet tomorrow. However, the interesting part is this: back in college (parts 2 and 3), I used to eat a lot of dairy, cheese sticks and yogurt drinks mostly. These would give me the sharp pain in the colon that I have since associated with a rapid onslaught of diarrhea. I know the body can change and adapt. I know that the body sometimes reacts differently to different stimuli depending on certain situations. I will admit that I am quite happy that I haven't had any adverse reactions in these past 3 days; I am also quite surprised...happily surprised. Lyndsey was concerned with the amount of diary I consumed on dairy day. I didn't tell her this, but I kind of wanted to make my body run the gauntlet...not in a ridiculous sort of way, but more in the "This is dairy and you can't escape it and you're going to deal with it all day long; so show me how you're going to deal with it." It was one of those things that I figured I'd have an answer to long before the cheesy rice was dreamed up for dinner if there was to be an answer at all.
Tomorrow may be Sugar Day. Sugar is one of those things that I don't really need (as I've found out over the last month), but it is an incidental in a lot of foods...such as that probiotic yogurt. So, tomorrow I'll probably have a mug of milk for breakfast, skip snack (because I'll probably have my young charge with me), a yogurt for lunch, ice cream (please?) for afternoon snack, rice and veggies for dinner (BOOOOOOO!!!!), and lemonade with gluten-free/egg-free cookies for dessert (YAAAAAAAY!!!!!)...or maybe I'll have the lemonade earlier in the day. Or maybe I'll have the cookies with my mug of milk for breakfast. Decisions, decisions...it feels nice to be able to make them again.
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